In an ongoing effort to provide a variety of arts and culture programs to the greater community, the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center brings back its annual Dialogues Lecture Series.

Now in its sixth year, the five-month series will kickoff Jan. 26 featuring Rabbi Harold Robinson, a chaplain in the Naval Reserve since 1975, who will be discussing “Jews in the U.S. Military: It’s Not Your Grandfather’s Armed Forces.”

The 2010 Dialogues Lecture Series is a way to share what the JCC offers to the entire community, said Judith L. Markowitz, director of development and special programs.

“A wide range of people come to the lectures,” said Markowitz. “It’s really about education, inspiration, hearing life stories, change in the world, social justice, hearing about other people’s experiences so we can widen our personal scope.”

All lectures, which begin at 7:30 p.m. each month through May, feature a different speaker topic, Markowitz said. The public is also invited to meet the lecturer after the event.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing in people from near and far,” she said.

Robinson is from the East Coast, while two of the speakers — NPR correspondent Linda Gradstein and Israeli food personality Janna Gur — come from Israel, Markowitz added.

Following Robinson’s lecture will be a talk by Lillian Rubin, a San Francisco-based author and social scientist who’s written several books on such topics as family and aging.

Rubin’s Feb. 11 talk will focus on aging. Her recent book, “Sixty on Up: The Truth About Aging in America,” takes a look at how the new longevity of humans impacts the lives of children and grandchildren.

Aging, Rubin said “opens up a whole new stage of life as well as new set of demands of life.”

“We’re getting younger as we’re getting older,” Rubin said in an interview by phone from her San Francisco home. “Getting old isn’t what it used to be.”

Women in her generation, for instance, were expected to raise families in early adulthood, she said. While Rubin took the early family track, she blazed a trail in 1963 when, at age 39, she enrolled at UC Berkeley as a freshman and devoted the next eight years to higher education and earning a Ph.D.

“It was an interesting experience,” Rubin recalled her time as a student at the university. “The kids were a little bit older than my daughter at the time. I was a 39-year-old freshman — I was the grown up but I also made lifelong friends with these kids.”

Rubin will talk about how 40- and 50-year-olds nowadays are impacted by the new advent of aging.

“Kids are saying to parents, ‘You’re spending our inheritance because you’re living so long,” Rubin said. “We can celebrate that we’re living longer but we also have to look at the cost, as well as the benefits, of living longer.”

“We’re delighted to have a local author coming to the lecture because we have so much talent in our area,” Markowitz said.

Gradstein, who was the NPR correspondent in Jerusalem for more than 20 years, will talk about “Covering Israel: A Jewish Journalist’s Prospective” on March 23.

Tel Aviv-based Gur, a food expert and cookbook author of “The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey,” trace the formation of the city’s food culture at her talk on April 27.

Finally, renowned jazz saxophonist and educator, Pete Yellin of Berkeley, will be discussing “Jazzed Up! The Changing Face of Jazz,” and will perform May 26.

“The attendees will be engaged to hear candid discussions from our speakers,” Markowitz said. “Each one has a unique experience to share.”

More in News

Around 8:20 p.m., a 50-year-old Oakland man was driving on eastbound I-580 lanes near Edwards Avenue when a bullet came through his windshield from an unknown direction, CHP Officer Matthew Hamer said.

Around 5:35 p.m., CHP officers responded to a report of the incident in westbound I-580 lanes at Main Street. En route, officers learned a vehicle's driver said a person in another vehicle brandished a handgun and fired a shot.

In addition to evacuating 10 neighboring homes, deputies restricted pedestrian and vehicle traffic in the area while the sheriff's office bomb squad "safely disposed" of the explosives, officials said.